Chapter2

 

Johanna woke up late the next morning. she usually slept in late on weekends but this entire running about all over town on Sunday business made me tired. She just barely had gotten up when Katherine came through the front door. She always came in the morning for some coffee and toast before we went out to catch the city bus to school.

“Jo!” she called. “Where are you?”

“I’m in the bathroom!’ Johanna yelled back at her, “I just got up. You can settle yourself, just pour me a cup of coffee.”

When she made it to the kitchen Katherine was sitting there with a piece of toast in her mouth watching the morning news. She sat down and sipped the coffee and turned on my laptop before Johanna noticed the time.

“Agh. Come on Kate we’re gonna miss the bus.” Johanna grabbed my backpack and headed towards the door.

“Awww,” she whined as she followed me, “I thought we were gonna be skipping today.”

When we got to school we hung out in the courtyard before class started. Katherine was popular; she knew everyone so the group she hung with was rather large. She knew that Johanna didn’t like large groups of people, mostly because she could never remember them, so they normally were just by themselves. Today was not one of those days so she told her that she would see her during second hour and headed towards her classroom.

They had all our classes together expect for first hour. She, who couldn’t draw to save het life, took my creative writing class this hour. They used to not have two hours together because Johanna used to play the clarinet for band, but she quit at the beginning of her sophomore year.

When she came into class Julie and her brother Julian were sitting in their seats. Julie was a grade A student and took all advanced classes. She really shouldn’t been taking this easy A class but she needed a credit in an English elective and this was the only thing that would fit in her schedule. Julian was very different. He took normal classes and pasted with B’s and C’s. You would also see him drawing and reading anime in his spare time. No one really knew why he was in this class. Maybe it was because he wanted to spend time with his sister, maybe it was because they had put him in here and he was too lazy to get out. Whatever the reason the two siblings were fun to be around.

“Hey Jo! Did you get your homework done over the weekend?” Julie asked.

Julian picked up his head and nodded in his strange hello.

“No,” Johanna replied, “Why else do you think I would come to class so early? I need to copy off of you.”

“Meh,” she said as she looked in her folder for the paper, “You usually get your work done. Did you do anything this weekend?”

“Yea, I was hanging out with Katherine and her friend. She felt he needed a make-over.”

“Katherine? She’s a b***h.”

“She’s hot.” Julian said at the same time as his sister’s less friendly comment.

As soon as Julie found the paper Johanna snatched it and started coping. The teacher then walked in a looked around to find that there were 6 students already in her room. Julie, the straight A excellent student, Johanna, the girl who acted different then her classes/grades, Andrew, a kid who couldn’t stop reading, Michelle and Keegan, two preppy girls who talked all the time and their grade showed, and Julie’s brother Julian, she didn’t know what was up with him, he got average grades and didn’t cause trouble so it didn’t really matter.    

10 minutes later the bell rang and all the other students started coming into the classroom and filling up their seats. The final bell rang and the teacher clapped her hands to get class started. She asked for the homework to be passed up and for them to take out their notebooks and start writing about what they did over the weekend for 10 minutes while she gives us points for the homework. They hadn’t written for more than 3 minutes when the principal walked in with a teenager. Johanna looked up just to notice that, it wasn’t weird, students transferred in all the time.

The principal talked to the teacher for a few minutes and then left and the teacher talked to the student. The student never talked and Johanna didn’t get a good look so she couldn’t tell if they were a boy or a girl. Johanna finished her paper and was going to check over it, or pretend to, for grammar and spelling, neither which was really her forte, when the teacher asked her to come to the front of the room.

“Yes?” she said when she got to the desk.

“This is Ma-uh, M-M-Mar…”

“People call me Marvin.” Marvin said.

Johanna looked over and noticed that it was really Marvin from yesterday.

“This is Marvin,” the teacher said, “He is new here. You know that the principal usually shows the student around the school but he has a situation he has to deal with. You know your way around the school right? I’ll write you a pass and here is his schedule, show him where his classes are and the places he’ll need to know and come back before the end of the hour. I’ll mark all your assignments today as not counting including the homework you just stole from Julie.”

Johanna just stood there almost unblinking and accepting the papers she was given. The teacher has this way about her with giving a lot of information at once and quickly, sometimes it seemed like she didn’t breathe.

“Would you like me to say it slower?”

“Uh,” she woke from her daze, “Oh, no. Come on Marvin.” Once they got into the hallway Johanna chose to walk in the general direction of the cafeteria, “What are you doing here?”

“I transferred here as a student.”

All of a sudden Marvin sounded really suspicious. Out of the blue Katherine meets this guy and not but a week later Johanna has to meet him and then the next day this kid transfers to her school. She turned while they were still walking and gave him the raised eyebrow, “Where did you go to school before and why did you transfer?”

“Uh,” He panicked for a second but Johanna turned away at that moment to wave to a passing person she knew. By the time she looked at him again he had gained his composure, “I went to a boarding school before and my parents, um, sent me here.”

Johanna took his story and showed him the rest of school making small talk. She didn’t totally believe him though, so she took note of all that he said. He said nothing about his family, his past, his friends or family, or basically anything about him. She didn’t really know what to think of him before so now she was totally confused.

Author's Note

I started writing this in two difference tenses and so if there is a mistake with that sorry, I don't think I caught them all when I was editing and noticed it.